WASHINGTON – Attempting to prevent an upset in Tuesday’s Mississippi Senate race runoff, Republicans have aired four television ads for every three paid for by Democrats, according to figures compiled for USA TODAY by Kantar Media/CMAG.

While Democratic challenger Mike Espy remains the underdog in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1982, ads by him and his allies hope to take advantage of missteps by GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Espy’s commercials argue that Hyde-Smith is a disaster and embarrassment for Mississippi.

“We can’t afford a senator who embarrasses us and reinforces the stereotypes we’ve worked so hard to overcome,” one spot says.

Republican ads, meanwhile, portray the runoff as a choice between someone who aligns with the “leftist mob” – including by opposing President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee – and one of his strong supporters.

“Espy already sided with the radical left, opposing Judge Kavanaugh,” says an ad paid for by a GOP super PAC. “Next, they’ll demand he support open borders and abolish ICE.”

I will be in Gulfport and Tupelo, Mississippi, on Monday night doing two Rallies for Senator Hyde-Smith, who has a very important Election on Tuesday. She is an outstanding person who is strong on the Border, Crime, Military, our great Vets, Healthcare & the 2nd A. Needed in D.C.

The candidates were forced into a runoff after neither won a majority in the Nov. 6 election in which Republicans expanded their narrow Senate majority. If Hyde-Smith wins Tuesday, Republicans will have 53 seats next year instead of the 51 they now hold.

Hyde-Smith continues to deal with fallout from making a joke about a public hanging Nov. 2 while praising a longtime friend. She said: "I would fight a circular saw for him. If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."

The comment quickly went viral, with critics saying it conjured up images of lynchings and Mississippi's racist past. Espy is African-American.

Several companies, including Walmart, have asked for the return of donations. Major League Baseball also recently asked for a $5,000 donation back, even though the contribution was made weeks after Hyde-Smith’s remark.

Hyde-Smith has apologized “for anyone that was offended by my comments” while accusing the Espy campaign of twisting her comments for “political gain.”

Three of Espy’s ads mention the comments, including one featuring a self-described Republican telling an MSNBC reporter that he’s supporting Espy. The voter says there are a lot of Republicans who were diehard Hyde-Smith fans but who can’t believe what she said.

“And they’re scared to death of what she’s going to say down the road,” he adds.

Espy, and the Democratic super PAC that supports him, have also attacked Hyde-Smith on Democrats’ favorite 2018 campaign topic: health care. Ads accuse her of being cozy with the health insurance industry, voting for “junk” insurance policies and not backing protections for people with pre-existing health conditions.

But the label Espy is trying hardest to stick on Hyde-Smith is “disaster,” a word used in most of his ads, whether talking about her controversial comment or other parts of her record.

“She’s a disaster for Mississippi,” the announcer says in one spot, while promising that Espy “will work across party lines for us.”

Hyde-Smith, the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress, was appointed to the seat earlier this year to replace retiring Sen. Thad Cochran. He stepped down early for health reasons.

Besides the public hanging comment, Hyde-Smith has more recently been in the spotlight through news reports that she attended a segregation academy in high school and praised a Confederate soldier's attempts to "defend his homeland.”

In her ads, Hyde-Smith tries to turn voters’ attention away from her – and to the conservative values she says they share.

“It’s not just about me,” she says in an ad. “It’s about you and what you believe in.”

Those beliefs, she says, are the “right to life,” lower taxes, a stronger military, securing the border, protecting the 2nd Amendment and “all constitutional freedoms.”

Her ads, as well as those aired by Republican groups, feature attacks on Espy’s record. Republicans ding him for being indicted on bribery and fraud charges while serving as President Bill Clinton’s Agriculture Secretary, although the ads don’t say that he was acquitted. Some ads also mention the money Espy received from an Ivory Coast dictator as a lobbyist.

But the spots also hit hard on the themes Trump emphasized during his campaigning for Senate Republicans this year.

“If Democrats get control, they will raise your taxes, flood your streets with criminal aliens, weaken our military, outlaw private health insurance and replace freedom with socialism,” Trump says in an ad paid for by Hyde-Smith and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Immigration, supporting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Trump's agenda were the themes most often mentioned in Republican ads.

Hyde-Smith and her allies have spent about $2.7 million on broadcast and cable ads compared to $1.2 million spent by Espy’s side from Nov. 7 through Nov. 24.

But the gap between the two sides narrows when comparing the number of spots, instead of the amount of money spent. (Ad rates vary depending on whether the candidate or an outside group is doing the buying, and vary based on when and where they air.)

Of the more than 8,700 ads aired, Republicans paid for 57 percent.

Both sides appealed to supporters over the weekend for final contributions to keep the ads coming.

"I know there's still a real chance here to flip a red Senate seat," Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, head of the campaign arm of Senate Democrats, said in an email solicitation.